Find additional resources to support NHIS- Chief Justice urges government
The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, look for additional sources of funding to support the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
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This, she said, was to enhance the financial sufficiency of the NHIA and make it possible for the authority to pay all outstanding debts owed health facilities.
Opening the 13th Annual General and Scientific Meeting (AGSM) of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra yesterday, the Chief Justice said: “I wish to add my voice to appeals already made to the government to find additional resources in the short term to support the NHIA. These additional funds should immediately go to reimburse all those health facilities owed outstanding claims, despite timely submissions on their part,” she stated.
She was speaking on the theme: “Financing health care in Ghana: The future of the National Health Insurance Scheme”.
This year’s AGSM saw the admission and induction of 147 newly qualified members and 30 new fellows into the college. Additionally, a professor of Gynaecology, Carolyn Johnston, was given an honorary fellowship award for her exceptional role in health care in Ghana and beyond.
Private participation
The Chief Justice further called for stronger private participation in the provision of health insurance for Ghanaians.
That, she said, would increase universal health coverage, as well as widen the revenue mobilisation network of the government in its quest to find additional sources of funding for the scheme.
“The combined effects of the NHIS, the private commercial schemes and the private mutual schemes are what will ultimately enable the country’s quest for universal health coverage,” she added.
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Mrs Wood also indicated that access to quality health care, with guaranteed financial protection, could only be achieved if pragmatic steps were put in place by the government in that regard, noting that the NHIS was largely beneficial and that nothing bad should be done to undermine people’s confidence in it.
Sustaining the NHIS
The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Scientific Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante, called for innovations in order to sustain the scheme in the long term.
“The scheme must be active in its internally generated funds (IGFs) and always rely on it, even before it cries out for help from the government,” he said, indicating that “it should not in any way replace government’s subvention or support to the scheme”.
Prof. Asante also reiterated the call on the government to strengthen the public/private partnership (PPP) arrangements it had with some private institutions, saying that it was the way to go.
NHIS is robust
The Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefia, said the NHIS was robust and attracting a lot of participation from Ghanaians.
Last year, for instance, he said, out-patient utilisation of the NHIS rose to 29 million from 16.6 million in 2009.
For his part, the Rector of the college, Prof. Jacob Plange-Rhule, congratulated the newly inducted members and urged them to be good ambassadors of the college.